Posts by Elana Schor
Has lobbying derailed new money-in-politics bill?
Last Thursday, hours before the House Rules Committee was set to take up a measure aimed at mitigating the fallout from Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision — which allowed corporations to spend unlimited amounts of campaign cash — the meeting was scrapped. Watchdog groups say behind-the-scenes lobbying by some of Washington’s biggest campaign spenders spooked enough Democrats to make the legislation impossible to pass in its current form.
Some concerns lurk behind Build America Bonds’ popularity
It remains one of the most popular ideas in the White House’s economic stimulus law: Helping states and localities weather the credit crisis by selling a new breed of taxpayer-subsidized municipal debt to investors. Critics say the Build America Bonds program, enacted by the stimulus, pads Wall Street profits and poses an excessive risk to bond issuers.
The question Geithner can’t escape: Why pay off AIG’s partners?
The latest political clamor over AIG, poised to combust next Wednesday at a House hearing on backdoor payments to banks that made risky deals with the company, centers on the Federal Reserve’s effort to conceal details of those payments. But senior officials, including Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, have so far evaded a key question: Why were AIG’s trading partners fully paid with taxpayer money instead of being told to take a loss?
Bankers turn off campaign cash spigot
Since the financial industry bailouts began, Wall Street and Washington have never looked closer. But as the recession deepens and banks grow to resent the stigma associated with taxpayer aid, an unexpected chill is occurring: Bank employees are slamming their checkbooks shut.
Campaign contributions up, despite economic downturn
A Washington Indepedent analysis of tight U.S. House and Senate races finds the recession isn’t slowing the flow of money into lawmakers’ coffers.
